Title:

Understanding, quantifying and mapping the use of poison by commercial farmers in Namibia โ€“ Implications for scavengers' conservation and ecosystem health

Publication Year:
2016
Abstract:

Effective nature conservation in human-dominated landscapes requires a deep understanding of human behaviors, perceptions and values. Human-wildlife conflicts represent relatively well-studied, global-scale conservation challenges. In Africa, vulture populations are collapsing as they fall victim to poison used by livestock farmers to kill predators, but our understanding of the prevalence of this practice is still very poor. We gathered data on the prevalence of poison use in Namibia by means of questionnaires completed by commercial farmers. The data were collected and analyzed with ad-hoc quantitative methods. We quantified prevalence of poison use, determined factors associated with this practice and derived a map of its prevalence. We found that 20% of commercial farmers in Namibia used poison; farmers that owned high numbers of small stock and on large farms, and those who had suffered high livestock losses to predators, were most likely to admit to using poison. We pinpoint areas of high prevalence of reported poison use, which are largely concentrated in the south of the country. Furthermore, we report a generally positive perception of commercial farmers towards vultures, which may indicate future potential to implement bottom-up approaches for vulture conservation. Overall, the findings have important implications for prioritizing efforts to effectively tackle the African vulture crisis and preserve healthy ecosystems for the wellbeing of humans and wildlife. Keywords: African vulture crisis, commercial farmer, Human-wildlife conflict, modern conservation, Poison use, Vulture collapse.

Publication Title:

Biological Conservation

Volume:
204
Issue:
Part B
Pages:
205-211
Item Type:
Journal Article
Language:
en